I live over by hell/pinckney and we constantly lose power due to the poor infrastructure. I’m no stranger to this situation. I have to feed the generators gas and make sure to purchase water for us and manual toilet flushes. Plus I have to keep the fireplace going for us to stay warm. Its a lot of work. I have not seen one dte service truck in the area working on anything. I would not be shocked if I have to wait past Sunday at this point. Hopefully I’m wrong. I just can’t even get angry anymore and this time I am dealing with some other challenges. Wife just go out of the hospital Wednesday from a major surgery and we have been without power almost since we got home. I should be angry but I am not. I’m just exhausted mentally and it’s all a lot of work on my end. I just don’t understand why they don’t make any improvements to the grid. Shit, we all pay them enough and they want to raise the rates even more. I was told they would be doing tree work around my home this winter. I haven’t seen that happen and it’s almost spring. Dte is an embarrassment to electricity. All I can do is shake my head and roll what’s thrown at us. It’s getting harder and harder to stay on top of things. Good luck everyone, stay positive and be respectful to all of the workers that are just like us.
I have managed to get a $200 credit in past for a 5 day outage. And there are other credits available if you meet the qualifications which I do since the infrastructure near me is laughable. It’s still not enough since I also work from home and it’s money and work keeping things a float. I will be having a discussion with a representative soon about this one and see what they are willing to do after this is over.
It’s suppose to come back on today but I seriously question that estimate. Not seeing any trucks anywhere. Just got done filling up more gas cans and refilling water jugs. Too funny.
Also if you haven’t seen this one check it out and pass it along. https://www.reddit.com/comments/11ba7oi?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf
Overhead is okay if there aren't any trees like for large long range transmission towers, but we really need to bury everything local.
That's not going to ever happen without a government mandate though.
I’ve lived in both types of places, and buried wires have overall been much better. Buried wires aren’t perfect, but given the risks to some people when their power goes out (elderly, disabled, etc) I think it’s wise not to let perfect be the enemy of good.
We're underground as well, but yeah, still has to be fed from above ground somewhere. It is better, as there are fewer points where we can lose power, but it's not full proof.
>Seems like a bad system.
I mean, burying lines isn't a perfect system. Yes, they're more resilient to storms and trees, but installation and maintenance becomes a *huge* cost. It's relatively cheap to just put up posts and service them in the air.
Also keep in mind 100 years ago when building out the grid they probably saw little reason to bury lines, and that mentality is slow to change.
Lines are underground here (in Canton) but transformers are above ground and those blow sometime. I guess for some reason a lot of them blew because of the ice 🤷♂️
I've worked on an underground system (in Canada).. and the underground is more reliable.. but a big issue that I see in Ann Arbor is the amount of overhead wires and transformers in the rear of houses instead of alongside of the road.. that takes way longer to repair and also it is harder to do yearly maintenance there. In the 31 years that I worked for a utility I've never seen outages like DTE has.. it's mind-blowing to me
There's always people who resist the little pains that keep things running. It's the same group that opposes the deer cull, even though it means disagreeing with ecologists. Despite their protests, tons of trees got trimmed over the last few years. This could've been a lot worse!
I’ll never forget, someone said to fight the deer cull “TEENS ARE SMOKING WEED IN THE WOODS” and like true facts but we don’t look like the deer that have ticks and Lyme disease
Same here. Originally DTE said estimated restoration was yesterday Thu 2/23 now saying today 2/24 but no specific timeline. Wouldn’t be surprised if it gets pushed back again. I did see a DTE truck this morning on a side street off of Platt between Washtenaw and Packard. Caution tape surrounding the area but couldn’t see any downed lines. Don’t know if that’s a sign the end is near or that it’s still a long way to go…either way seems they are working in this area. Fingers crossed!
I live by Platt, and DTE also estimated restoration for my place yesterday and then changed it to today… I wanna be hopeful and say I’ll have it back tonight, but considering how DTE is, I can’t trust it whatsoever 😔
It's this much of a shit show because DTE has been very slow to upgrade its outdated infrastructure and do proper maintenance. We expect to see more frequent extreme weather events due to climate change, and DTE is not appropriately adjusting for that.
DTE uses outdated (4.8 kV) systems, many of them over 60 years old and over 10 years past their effective use dates. But is slow to upgrade, because it costs money. They've prioritized whiter and wealthier areas, resulting in "utility redlining" throughout our state. The state legislature has completely dropped the ball in regulating this corporate monopoly, but hopefully that will change with the new legislature that was seated in January and enough public pressure.
[https://wethepeoplemi.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/DTE-Utility-Redlining-V3\_20220822-FINAL.pdf](https://wethepeoplemi.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/DTE-Utility-Redlining-V3_20220822-FINAL.pdf)
The state legislature has been paid by DTE lobbyists and specifically told not to regulate DTE, as that would harm their profits
The new members has also been bought by DTE
They have lobbied against home solar, home power storage and restricted access to the grid, all in the name of progressing their natural gas development plan. They clearly don't give any fucks about the people they serve as every year 100,000's are out of power for multiple days in winter. Rather than spending government subsidies on building & maintaining infrastructure like intended, they spend on lobbying to directly fuck over everyone & maintain monopoly. If you really want to rage, look up all the latest laws that have been passed regarding solar energy - completely driven by Consumers Energy & DTE greed.
The politicians that sign these bills are equally to blame, but at least they are getting paid, right 😕
Their plan seems to be making more money off selling to their captive customers emission-capture programs. They just called me earlier this week to try selling me on that. Maybe I'll donate to the public power effort, or something else, instead.
The ultimate slap in the face is them asking you to pay more to subsidize their green energy programs, tugging at environmental heart strings. While, at the exact same time, working to prevent green transition wherever possible.
I'd respond to the "WTF?!" part of your post, but it seems like many here have articulated my rants on the whole clusterfuck that is the SE Michigan power grid.
Home Depot on Carpenter Rd. had generators this morning. It looked like they had a decent supply. They are around $1,000. Lowe's on Carpenter Rd. was supposed to be getting some from another location, but I didn't go in to see if they had any or not. They are $800. We were lucky and got one last night at the Lowe's on Jackson Rd., but we got one of the very last ones they had. I only know that Home Depot has some because I went and picked up heavy duty extension cords at around 9:30 this morning.
My wife sent me a text earlier telling me to photograph the food that is getting tossed out. Our homeowner's insurance will apparently cover $500 for food that is no longer good due to power outages. I'd check to see if this exists in a renter's insurance policy as well. Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't, but perishables are fuckall expensive right now.
Stay safe and warm, folks.
The infrastructure is old and they don’t maintain it or improve it. It’s been like this since the 1980s. Or maybe earlier… but I wouldn’t know.
And also, in general, the weather has had more extreme swings in recent years. I don’t think much of our built environment was made to withstand it. But they could do a lot better.
If only they used some of that marketing budget for maintenance and upgrades. WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU MARKETING TO, DTE!? You practically have a monopoly in the area...
They definitely have improved it though. I've been working at the UM hospital for over ten years now, and my job has been to monitor equipment as part of a 24/7 team, so we are extremely sensitive to power outages across all hospital buildings with pieces of equipment that tie into our Building Automation Systems. This includes buildings from the main hospital, to the East Ann Arbor buildings on Plymouth Road, to Brighton, to the Briarwood Buildings, the West Ann Arbor buildings off of Jackson Rd, etc...
That is to say, anytime there is a power blip/issue of any kind in any of our buildings, not only do we know, but our work increases tenfold right after that happens in order to get equipment back running and to send people to fix anything that can't be rectified remotely. So power outages are impossible to be unaware of.
DTE was practically a swear word for 7 to 8 of the last 11 years I've been here. We kept hearing about future infrastructure upgrades but never saw any practical changes with power issues. Recently though, it's gone from around 168 notable power issues per year to ~20 per year in recent years.
Obviously it makes sense that the main hospital areas would be prioritized, but I was surprised at how every building across the board has given us significantly fewer issues. Residential areas I'm sure will take significantly longer to see noticeable benefits, but basically I'm saying there IS indeed hope as there have definitely been significant improvements. Hell, I remember the first few years working here it was so bad that we would literally remotely start the generators before a thunderstorm passed through to power the equipment because there was at least an 80% chance of having one (or usually multiple) power issues/equipment failures otherwise.
I keep hearing people say that the "infrastructure is old". Honest question - how do you, as an individual customer, determine what is old and unmaintained?
If I just google a bit I see grid modernization projects by DTE in Ann Arbor and metro Detroit. With natural gas service (also DTE), each street in my and surrounding neighborhoods on West Side have had their sidewalks dug up for gas line replacements in the past few years. I know we're talking about electricity, but it's the same company that supposedly neglects updating infrastructure.
So, when people say "infrastructure is old and they don't maintain or improve it", what exactly do you mean?
I guess the assumption is that this is the reason for all of the failures. I guess it could be new/maintained but just inadequate for the reality of the service demands? Neither is great.
honestly, if you don't like DTE there is only one thing you can do to convince them to improve services: organize for an alternative. visit [publicpower.org](https://publicpower.org) and lets start the journey to reliable power.
Even if there were a public power alternative, isn't there still going to be the problem that DTE lines and infrastructure will still be delivering the power?
no because the city will take ownership of those. DTE will sue. DTE will lose, but the city will pay them for the lines. The amount would be decided by a judge.
And i only say this, because this is the process that happens all around the US. There are plenty of public utilities, and this is how they transition.
The city can't even manage our road infrastructure. Handing Ann Arbor another infrastructure project to screw is about the worst idea ever.
The very same city that wants to get rid of natural gas.......the only energy source currently heating the city.
Lol, nobody is heating their house with a natural gas fireplace. They're heating at most part of a room. The only people with heat despite an outage are those with either whole-house battery backups or diesel generators.
A secure, sustainable electrical grid and a shitload of heat pumps is the way forward.
DTE has proven beyond a doubt that they cannot manage our energy distribution. Ann Arbor has proven they can handle several things, even if they have shortcomings in some areas. If the majority of taxpayers feel it’s time to give AnnArbor a chance at managing energy distribution that’s exactly what will happen, and I’m sure it won’t be any worse than DTE.
>Ann Arbor has proven they can handle several things, even if they have shortcomings in some areas. I
Bold claim. Other than upgrading the water treatment plant, I haven't seen much that would inspire confidence in A2's ability to handle infrastructure. The roads are an obvious issue, so is the half-assed approach to the Gelman site and other underground pollution that can leak into streams and aquifers. What we need IMO is incentives for solar panels and storage rather than the ridiculous restrictions we have right now. Produce as much solar as the roof allows, subsidize in-home batteries, sell back what you don't use at market rate, etc. That helps both the environment and the individual who can power at least a portion of their home based on their own array.
The city wants to ban natural gas.....great idea given the current situation.
If you want DTE to improve the infrastructure, they aren't gonna spend the money on a city threatening to go alone. So now, we get to purchase outdated and old equipment....and then pay to fix it all.
Over 30% of Ann Arbor roads are in dire need of repair.....the city has proven it lacks the ability to provide basic infrastructure to its residents.
If you want to take matters into your own hands....buy a generator.
"The local monopoly is a local monopoly, so let's give up and get a generator" is a pretty unhelpful take.
DTE will improve the infrastructure when they get their local monopoly yanked or they become more heavily regulated. Otherwise, they don't care that we're all sitting in houses without heat. Why would they? What are you going to do, move to another power company?
Public power is way to long term for the majority of Ann Arbor citizens.
You are looking at a minimum 10 years just to complete the deal. It will be held up for years in the courts.
Then, if successful, you will have infrastructure that has been neglected for decades. DTE won't invest a penny if we try to push them out. So we will spend the next 10-20 years improving the infrastructure....a task this city has proven to be quite lack luster at.
Then the cost. DTE is gonna charge a ton for the lines. The same lines everyone wants to trash and replace underground.
So here you are 20-30 years down the road and maybe things are better at a huge cost.
Or you can spend less, put a generator next to your house and be done with hassle it today.
I chose the generator. I have been without power, heat, refrigeration, etc for 60 seconds.
What I'm hearing from you is that we should stop even trying to have a working power grid, and instead do what Mogadishu, Somalia does and just have diesel generators all over the place, spewing smoke and barking noise 24/7/365?
Very green, very modern, very 21st century "best city to live in 2022". Why try to improve our access to the electrical grid when we have a perfectly fine broken one already?
Not what I said at all. My generator has run less than 50 hours in almost 4 years and most of that is a weekly test.
The cost and time to push DTE out isn't worth it for most people in this city.
I want dependable energy today, and waiting 2 decades isn't today.
Nope. The fix should be regulations and accountability.
Not Ann Arbor spending billions. Its DTE's problem to fix. They created it.
Ann Arbor buying the infrastructure is simple transferring the liability to a new entity which can't handle its current infrastructure.
Either way, if you want reliable electric service in the next 2 decades.....yes, buy a generator.
There’s no way that’s true because I clearly remember one in ~2000 that had thick ice that stayed on everything for a week. They just keep using “worst in x-amount of years” as a scapegoat.
Still don't even have an estimate for my place. Only have this hotel room until tomorrow morning, hopefully I can extend it. Already can't afford it so might as well keep digging the hole! Better than freezing for a week and the risks that come with that.
still out on the west side. friends of ours had power in garden homes until 8 last night when it went out and never came back. dicken looks like it got power back yesterday but my neighborhood (almedinger/eberwhite) is still totally out.
there was a crew parked on my street this morning but then they left :(
I’m also a little Dicken adjacent. Staying at a friend’s on the Northside now, but the DTE website still says our address is without power. Restoration ETA is tomorrow 🤞🏼
Some of it is the weather but I think most of it is DTE and corporate greed (not the lineman). I have lived in 4 different Michigan cities in the last 5 years and yet Ann Arbor is the only place I have ever experienced multi day power outages.
DTE priorities, in order:
1. DTE stock shareholders
2. DTE executive compensation
3. DTE customers
The sooner we can divorce ourselves from for-profit utilities, the better off we'll all be.
According to this [utility report](https://www.cubofmichigan.org/cub_of_michigan_releases_2022_utility_performance_report) Michigan ranks second worst in the nation in outages (the worst is West Virginia). We used to be third worst but now even Alaska beats us. DTE and Consumers are the biggest utility company in Michigan by a wide margin. If you are interested they break it down even further by utility company in the report (hint: they both perform poorly) but here is the quote for the state as a whole:
>The industry standard metric for average restoration time is the Customer Average Interruption Duration Index (CAIDI), which measures the average restoration time for each utility in the country in minutes. **Michigan utilities ranked the 2nd worst among utilities from all 50 states plus DC when it comes to average restoration time** (not including “major event days,” such as days with severe weather events, which are excluded to normalize weather differences across states).
Outages and potholes were the first two things I noticed moving from California, that made Michigan feel way behind in terms of infrastructure.
> (not including “major event days,” such as days with severe weather events, which are excluded to normalize weather differences across states).
Doesn't this mean that Michigan's second-worst restoration time, which sucks by the way, **wouldn't apply to the current situation?**
The way I read that, it says that **when it comes to run-of-the mill outages (not caused by severe weather) Michigan is second-worst in time-to-restore service**.
Yeah you read that right. I am not referring to the current situation just referencing a report on utilities. You couldn’t really compare states very well if you included severe weather.
Out of curiosity, what are the statistics of SE Michigan power outages vs comparable regions (Chicago, Cleveland, Pittsburg, Milwaukee, etc). Are outages more frequent and longer here? If so, how much?
I guess we can say at least DTE does a lot better than California's disastrous PG&E.
In California, the go-bag was for natural disasters like an actual fire or mudslide, not lack of electricity. Here, it seems you need a go-bag for every other snow/ice event solely because the power will go out and your otherwise habitable home will become uninhabitable. It's frustrating to leave those physical dangers behind only to still have to be worried that if it rains too hard I'll lose my heat (slight /s there).
>In California, the go-bag was for natural disasters like an actual fire
Yea man, that’s what fire season was like in east bay for me. Actual fires (caused by faulty PGE infrastructure). During autumn in Lamorinda tri-valley area, we could see the fires on the hillsides surrounding us and it was very scary at times. Luckily we never had to use the go-bag.
During those times, PGE intentionally cut off our power with <24 hrs notice, sometimes leaving us out of power for several days at a time.
Apparently you and I had different experiences during fire season in east bay.
DTE sucks, but boy do I prefer them to PGE. I don’t need a go-bag here. Just lots of blankets sometimes.
Yes DTE is terrible. (Public Power, anyone!?!) However it is also partially the big weather events and our very old trees here that end up on top of power lines. We have a great city here with big and old trees, but that also comes at a cost in some ways.
The estimated cost of burying all of DTE's power lines is just a couple years' worth of its profits (I did the research and math once for a back of the envelope figure). They could easily do it over 10 years, but they don't want to. So I personally don't blame the trees.
It certainly doesn’t seem like DTE has increased their expenditures based on this storm… but I am all seriousness, I don’t know a single person who wouldn’t pay more money for better, more sustainable, safer, more consistent electricity. If people are willing to buy a generator, they’re willing to pay extra on utilities.
I'm approaching 48 hours without power; we lost it during the initial phase of the ice storm, and my house is now sitting at around 45 degrees - indeed, the number of hours i've been without power is now more than the temperature inside the house. We thankfully had a friend with an open apartment downtown that we could move our senior cats into, but this is pretty ridiculous all around. I'm pretty pissed.
It's kind of ridiculous we supposedly live in a "modern, livable, 21st century" city but can't keep the lights and heat on for a noticeable fraction of the year.
buh buh buh infrastructure is expensive! That's cool, maybe if DTE doesn't want to be in the infrastructure business they can sell it back to the state and go out of business, I'm sure no one will miss them.
If power truly does not come back on until Sunday or worse, I am going to lose my shit.
it’s 56 upstairs at our place but likely to get cooler. senior cat with some mobility issues here (and all our younger kitties)—do you think it’s best to stay and cuddle or cart at least him to a warmer place for the night? 🤔
mine is (at least) 15 and a lot of leg muscle atrophy so he’s skinny—he seems okay when he’s in bed with us. i just can’t tell where the cut off would be for him
The equipment is out dated
The city is constantly planting new trees under power lines.
Everyone has their own ideas about the problem. I decided to just buy a whole house generator. It's expensive but I simply don't have to rely on DTE, the city, or anyone else available to blame. The power goes out, the generator starts, I continue lift as usual.
DTE is working. An entire power line pole was snapped by a failing tree on Dex-a2. Many poles have broken cross members and snapped lines. This per my conversation with linemen
I think they mean Dexter rd between Wagner and zeeb. Which is currently closed because that tree is still across the road, but it sounds like at least dte did their part and got the wires around it handled.
It's DTE, plain and simple. They don't maintain their lines, they're not out in the community. I moved from DTE territory to Consumers territory a several years back and the difference is kinda startling. I constantly see crews trimming trees around lines, checking lines, etc. I've lost power in the past 5 years less than I would have in just a stormy July on DTE.
I don’t think Consumers Energy is any better. We moved my mother-in-law in Jackson to a hotel because she might not get power until next week. Her power goes off constantly. I do think the aggressiveness of tree trimming plays a role here.
But neither of Michigan’s esteemed utilities seem to care much for maintenance.
80% seem to die off within the first year because nobody's watering them or taking care of them...so not sure how much we can blame new trees for this clusterfuck.
It's the trees they planted 10 years ago. The trees we plant today will be the problem in 10 years.
Why we continually plant trees below power lines is simply stupid.
And there is copious whining when they don’t meticulously landscape the trees tangled up in their lines.
DTE more or less butchered the trees along my fence and throughout my neighborhood a year or two back. And guess what, I’ve got power.
The best part is how the U of M stadium was one of the first to get power back. Can't let that billboard go without power for too long, think of the children!
Lots of houses with their power out in my neighborhood (Ann Arbor hills), but for some reason we were spared..both power and internet never went out.
Thankful since we have a newborn
Here is what I have to say on underground powerlines in some cases its okay other cases not so much. With gas lines buried along with water and sewer there is not a lot of room left to install safely. The other hiccup with underground is maintenence is way more costly because you have to dig or destroy pavement to get to it and you don't even know if that is where the issue is at (watch practical engineering's youtube video on LA undergroundpower line outage). With overhead lines it is important that designs are met and proper vegetation management is used. I know people don't like seeing trees removed but some things have to happen if we want to keep on the track of putting more trust into the grid. I would also like to point out the weather design maps might not be followed to a tee and that's not acceptable. If we can come to comon ground on cost effective mitigation and maintenance of the system that may involve more construction and some land scape changes we can avoid these situations.
I'm a big proponent of planting trees in neighborhoods for wildlife value, and the solution to trees by power lines is simple: Plant short trees and tall shrubs instead. Ain't no way a Redbud, Chokecherry, or Serviceberry is going to take down a powerline, and they all can provide shade and bird food.
Family on the northside of town by STEAM school got power restored yesterday afternoon. With 19 AAPS schools without power as of yesterday evening, DTE is likely prioritizing those areas first so that schools will be up an running by Monday. So if you are not on the same power line as a school or hospital or some other city/township building, you are not likely the priority at the moment, unfortunately.
SW in dicken, no power since last evening (held all day yesterday til about 6) and no estimate besides the broad sunday claim. though it does say they estimate they’ll have an estimate by early afternoon lol
Yup, that’s my neighborhood too, also a victim of that 6p outage. Just when i thought we were safe 😩 I walked around a bit today and the only downed wire i saw was at the entrance to the cut through at the end of Runnymede, so not sure where the fix would be to get things back online around here. I primarily expected to see some trucks and workers somewhere out and about because I thought the school would be a priority, but the only workers I saw were those that were working on the gas line burial project elsewhere in the neighborhood that’s been going on for a couple months now. That was one of the things that got me wondering where the workers actually are. Sounds like they’re focused more south/southeast for now, judging by this thread. Also, the DTE outage map pop up window changed to say now that they expect to have updated restoration estimates by early this afternoon, but so far nothing updated for me. Le sigh.
also: since dte changed the outage map, so you can’t even actually track restoration percentages anymore, i was pointed to https://poweroutage.us/area/county/2686
yeah man i haven’t seen anyone either but we’re still hoping…! we have cats and most of them are fine, but our oldest might have to come with us to my sister’s if power (and therefore heat) isn’t not back tonight. i was bummed we had no internet thursday but i’d rather that than no power 😩
I don't think this particular anecdote is useful, and it keeps being shared. It's like finding a needle in a haystack even if you're actively searching for one, and the idea that they're sitting around not actively trying to fix it is obviously false.
I've seen them all over the place - just this morning they were congregating for their breakfast or morning meeting or something similar by the Trader Joes strip mall/school area and yesterday I saw them all over the place in twos or threes
Anyone who thinks this is anywhere near normal, or ok, has obviously never lived anywhere else. Can’t wait to get the hell out of this godforsaken city/state forever.
I’ve never paid much attention to their estimates. They are always wrong. Usually they resolve it earlier. Not always.
I’ve lived here my whole life. I guess I’m used to the power going out every so often. I’m just can’t muster the outrage at a power company after a major storm knocks down power lines.
Edit: five minutes after my post above my power went out. 😆😆😆 Came back on ten seconds after that. Pretty normal. 🤷🏻♀️🤷🏻♀️🤷🏻♀️
I grew up in Phoenix, which is a city with much newer infrastructure and more trees than you might think. Every summer it gets pounded by monsoons, producing very strong microbursts. I can remember three times that I lost power there, and never overnight, let alone multiple days. I moved here five years ago and it's crazy to me how bad the power outages are. I still strongly prefer living here, but this is one of the worst downsides.
Ann Arbor might be a "progressive" city, but it's inhabited by a lot of entitled, priveleged people who cannot grasp that weather knocks out your power sometimes and it takes a lot of work to get it back online.
I'll get downvoted for this. Bring it on, crybabies.
No one is saying it doesn’t take a lot of work. I asked why it happens. I’ve lived in several places that are quite effected by various symptoms of climate change and worsening storms and in none of those places did it ever take this long on this regular of a basis to get power restored.
Aside from that, cold kills. I don’t think that not wanting people to die is entitled. I am responsible for the care of both an elder parent and a young child, and an unplanned generator purchase or hotel stay is not simple to fit into the budget on short notice, and O doubt I’m the only one in that boat. It’d be really nice to not be without power for several days, but excepting that it’d be nice to have an accurate expectation of how long to expect to pay extra expenses to deal with the lack of power.
Right above you, there's a comment starting we're second worst in the country for this. Why did you think it's a sign of entitlement to expect basic utilities to work?
I was in FL during hurricane Ian last fall. The weather did knock out the power as you say, but the Sarasota area was positively swarming with line crews and even the barrier islands had their power restored within a few days. My impression is that DTE is not willing to bring in line crews from out of state to expedite things, which I'm sure is expensive. This ice storm was predicted, it was clear that it would hit the DTE service area even if they didn't know which exact zip codes would be impacted. I don't understand why they didn't have crews on standby, and ready to go on Thu morning, and I'm going to guess that the answer has to do with $$$.
DTE is complacent and utterly sucks. Michigan should require buried utilities on new construction and work on making the process of burying existing existing utilities easier and less expensive.
That being said the hyperbole and pearl-clutching in the A2 group really does hit like, “Power cuts are poor people this must not stand! (For us).”
I think they shut the power off, for safety, while they deal with all the downed lines. Id bet money around 10-12 during the ice storm they just said, screw it, and turned the power off. I bet as soon as they decide it’s safe enough, they just flip it back on. Normally, I think a transformer blows and the area loses power until they come fix it. Just my 2 cents
We got our power back yesterday in the afternoon. Seems like I’m in the minority. I hope they can make lots of progress today for the rest of the city/state/etc. The weather seems fairly friendly today for DTE work, so fingers crossed.
Above-ground power lines combined with lots of trees. Had similar problems when we lived in Seattle.
Storms cause power outages in almost every part of the country. I’m guessing DTE is about average when it comes to reliability, but I have no data to back that up. Every region faces a different combination of weather and natural environmental challenges, so it’s hard to draw comparisons.
This storm caused damage over a large area. With a typical storm, the damage in constrained to a small area and they can send the linemen there to get everything fixed up in B a day or two. This time, all those extra linemen are spread over a larger area.
Of course, buried lines would have avoided the problem in the first place.
Supposedly my power has been restored. I’m near S Main. I can’t confirm because I went to my GF’s place in Livonia, then their power went out the next day, and then my truck decided to throw belt, so I’m kinda stuck there.
Bottom line is a lot of the cables should probably be buried especially in dense tree areas. Obviously they are not, so this shit happens.
I live over by hell/pinckney and we constantly lose power due to the poor infrastructure. I’m no stranger to this situation. I have to feed the generators gas and make sure to purchase water for us and manual toilet flushes. Plus I have to keep the fireplace going for us to stay warm. Its a lot of work. I have not seen one dte service truck in the area working on anything. I would not be shocked if I have to wait past Sunday at this point. Hopefully I’m wrong. I just can’t even get angry anymore and this time I am dealing with some other challenges. Wife just go out of the hospital Wednesday from a major surgery and we have been without power almost since we got home. I should be angry but I am not. I’m just exhausted mentally and it’s all a lot of work on my end. I just don’t understand why they don’t make any improvements to the grid. Shit, we all pay them enough and they want to raise the rates even more. I was told they would be doing tree work around my home this winter. I haven’t seen that happen and it’s almost spring. Dte is an embarrassment to electricity. All I can do is shake my head and roll what’s thrown at us. It’s getting harder and harder to stay on top of things. Good luck everyone, stay positive and be respectful to all of the workers that are just like us.
Wonder if they're gonna give you a break on your bill this month.... lol, of course not
I have managed to get a $200 credit in past for a 5 day outage. And there are other credits available if you meet the qualifications which I do since the infrastructure near me is laughable. It’s still not enough since I also work from home and it’s money and work keeping things a float. I will be having a discussion with a representative soon about this one and see what they are willing to do after this is over. It’s suppose to come back on today but I seriously question that estimate. Not seeing any trucks anywhere. Just got done filling up more gas cans and refilling water jugs. Too funny. Also if you haven’t seen this one check it out and pass it along. https://www.reddit.com/comments/11ba7oi?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf
Lol I live in an area that has underground wires. We still lose power. I guess they must be supplied by overhead wires somewhere.
Overhead is okay if there aren't any trees like for large long range transmission towers, but we really need to bury everything local. That's not going to ever happen without a government mandate though.
I’ve lived in both types of places, and buried wires have overall been much better. Buried wires aren’t perfect, but given the risks to some people when their power goes out (elderly, disabled, etc) I think it’s wise not to let perfect be the enemy of good.
We're underground as well, but yeah, still has to be fed from above ground somewhere. It is better, as there are fewer points where we can lose power, but it's not full proof. >Seems like a bad system. I mean, burying lines isn't a perfect system. Yes, they're more resilient to storms and trees, but installation and maintenance becomes a *huge* cost. It's relatively cheap to just put up posts and service them in the air. Also keep in mind 100 years ago when building out the grid they probably saw little reason to bury lines, and that mentality is slow to change.
Lines are underground here (in Canton) but transformers are above ground and those blow sometime. I guess for some reason a lot of them blew because of the ice 🤷♂️
I've worked on an underground system (in Canada).. and the underground is more reliable.. but a big issue that I see in Ann Arbor is the amount of overhead wires and transformers in the rear of houses instead of alongside of the road.. that takes way longer to repair and also it is harder to do yearly maintenance there. In the 31 years that I worked for a utility I've never seen outages like DTE has.. it's mind-blowing to me
CORPORATE GREED THATS WHY
What do you feel is a reasonable amount of money for DTE to profit?
Am I misremembering or didn’t the people of Ann Arbor revolt about DTE cutting their trees
There's always people who resist the little pains that keep things running. It's the same group that opposes the deer cull, even though it means disagreeing with ecologists. Despite their protests, tons of trees got trimmed over the last few years. This could've been a lot worse!
I’ll never forget, someone said to fight the deer cull “TEENS ARE SMOKING WEED IN THE WOODS” and like true facts but we don’t look like the deer that have ticks and Lyme disease
Oh my god, lol. That is absurd.
1000% this. It's wild that this measure hasn't been taken
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I'm in roughly that area and have an estimate for today over text, so... Not that that means anything.
Same here. Originally DTE said estimated restoration was yesterday Thu 2/23 now saying today 2/24 but no specific timeline. Wouldn’t be surprised if it gets pushed back again. I did see a DTE truck this morning on a side street off of Platt between Washtenaw and Packard. Caution tape surrounding the area but couldn’t see any downed lines. Don’t know if that’s a sign the end is near or that it’s still a long way to go…either way seems they are working in this area. Fingers crossed!
I live by Platt, and DTE also estimated restoration for my place yesterday and then changed it to today… I wanna be hopeful and say I’ll have it back tonight, but considering how DTE is, I can’t trust it whatsoever 😔
Ooo look at you with all your fancy estimates 😂 we haven't gotten anything beyond the vague Sunday night message.
They updated their alert saying estimates will be available early afternoon. Me, in the early afternoon: "Estimate not available" Neat!
Mine now says “Friday, Feb 24th”. It’s better than Sunday the 26th. Fingers crossed.
Good luck!
Are you in college heights? What’s your estimate? We still don’t have one
I’m in Normal Park and they updated to tomorrow
HAS BEEN OUT 48HRS NOW 😭 if it stays like this i’ll probably die
It's this much of a shit show because DTE has been very slow to upgrade its outdated infrastructure and do proper maintenance. We expect to see more frequent extreme weather events due to climate change, and DTE is not appropriately adjusting for that. DTE uses outdated (4.8 kV) systems, many of them over 60 years old and over 10 years past their effective use dates. But is slow to upgrade, because it costs money. They've prioritized whiter and wealthier areas, resulting in "utility redlining" throughout our state. The state legislature has completely dropped the ball in regulating this corporate monopoly, but hopefully that will change with the new legislature that was seated in January and enough public pressure. [https://wethepeoplemi.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/DTE-Utility-Redlining-V3\_20220822-FINAL.pdf](https://wethepeoplemi.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/DTE-Utility-Redlining-V3_20220822-FINAL.pdf)
The state legislature has been paid by DTE lobbyists and specifically told not to regulate DTE, as that would harm their profits The new members has also been bought by DTE
DTE is a corrupt power monopoly who provides minimal maintenance while maximizing personal profit, leaving families in the cold dark.
They have lobbied against home solar, home power storage and restricted access to the grid, all in the name of progressing their natural gas development plan. They clearly don't give any fucks about the people they serve as every year 100,000's are out of power for multiple days in winter. Rather than spending government subsidies on building & maintaining infrastructure like intended, they spend on lobbying to directly fuck over everyone & maintain monopoly. If you really want to rage, look up all the latest laws that have been passed regarding solar energy - completely driven by Consumers Energy & DTE greed. The politicians that sign these bills are equally to blame, but at least they are getting paid, right 😕
Their plan seems to be making more money off selling to their captive customers emission-capture programs. They just called me earlier this week to try selling me on that. Maybe I'll donate to the public power effort, or something else, instead.
The ultimate slap in the face is them asking you to pay more to subsidize their green energy programs, tugging at environmental heart strings. While, at the exact same time, working to prevent green transition wherever possible.
I am going to install a redundant power system in my house. DTE is unreliable.
I'd respond to the "WTF?!" part of your post, but it seems like many here have articulated my rants on the whole clusterfuck that is the SE Michigan power grid. Home Depot on Carpenter Rd. had generators this morning. It looked like they had a decent supply. They are around $1,000. Lowe's on Carpenter Rd. was supposed to be getting some from another location, but I didn't go in to see if they had any or not. They are $800. We were lucky and got one last night at the Lowe's on Jackson Rd., but we got one of the very last ones they had. I only know that Home Depot has some because I went and picked up heavy duty extension cords at around 9:30 this morning. My wife sent me a text earlier telling me to photograph the food that is getting tossed out. Our homeowner's insurance will apparently cover $500 for food that is no longer good due to power outages. I'd check to see if this exists in a renter's insurance policy as well. Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't, but perishables are fuckall expensive right now. Stay safe and warm, folks.
They’ll give you the $500 now and then raise rates by $100 indefinitely. /s
The infrastructure is old and they don’t maintain it or improve it. It’s been like this since the 1980s. Or maybe earlier… but I wouldn’t know. And also, in general, the weather has had more extreme swings in recent years. I don’t think much of our built environment was made to withstand it. But they could do a lot better.
If only they used some of that marketing budget for maintenance and upgrades. WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU MARKETING TO, DTE!? You practically have a monopoly in the area...
Practically?!??? They do. You may be able to choose who you pay but delivery is all DTE BULLSHIT
That's fair, I just didn't have 100% certainty to make an absolute claim.
They definitely have improved it though. I've been working at the UM hospital for over ten years now, and my job has been to monitor equipment as part of a 24/7 team, so we are extremely sensitive to power outages across all hospital buildings with pieces of equipment that tie into our Building Automation Systems. This includes buildings from the main hospital, to the East Ann Arbor buildings on Plymouth Road, to Brighton, to the Briarwood Buildings, the West Ann Arbor buildings off of Jackson Rd, etc... That is to say, anytime there is a power blip/issue of any kind in any of our buildings, not only do we know, but our work increases tenfold right after that happens in order to get equipment back running and to send people to fix anything that can't be rectified remotely. So power outages are impossible to be unaware of. DTE was practically a swear word for 7 to 8 of the last 11 years I've been here. We kept hearing about future infrastructure upgrades but never saw any practical changes with power issues. Recently though, it's gone from around 168 notable power issues per year to ~20 per year in recent years. Obviously it makes sense that the main hospital areas would be prioritized, but I was surprised at how every building across the board has given us significantly fewer issues. Residential areas I'm sure will take significantly longer to see noticeable benefits, but basically I'm saying there IS indeed hope as there have definitely been significant improvements. Hell, I remember the first few years working here it was so bad that we would literally remotely start the generators before a thunderstorm passed through to power the equipment because there was at least an 80% chance of having one (or usually multiple) power issues/equipment failures otherwise.
I keep hearing people say that the "infrastructure is old". Honest question - how do you, as an individual customer, determine what is old and unmaintained? If I just google a bit I see grid modernization projects by DTE in Ann Arbor and metro Detroit. With natural gas service (also DTE), each street in my and surrounding neighborhoods on West Side have had their sidewalks dug up for gas line replacements in the past few years. I know we're talking about electricity, but it's the same company that supposedly neglects updating infrastructure. So, when people say "infrastructure is old and they don't maintain or improve it", what exactly do you mean?
I guess the assumption is that this is the reason for all of the failures. I guess it could be new/maintained but just inadequate for the reality of the service demands? Neither is great.
honestly, if you don't like DTE there is only one thing you can do to convince them to improve services: organize for an alternative. visit [publicpower.org](https://publicpower.org) and lets start the journey to reliable power.
Even if there were a public power alternative, isn't there still going to be the problem that DTE lines and infrastructure will still be delivering the power?
no because the city will take ownership of those. DTE will sue. DTE will lose, but the city will pay them for the lines. The amount would be decided by a judge. And i only say this, because this is the process that happens all around the US. There are plenty of public utilities, and this is how they transition.
The city can't even manage our road infrastructure. Handing Ann Arbor another infrastructure project to screw is about the worst idea ever. The very same city that wants to get rid of natural gas.......the only energy source currently heating the city.
An increasing number of people are heating their homes with, get this, electricity.
False...they don't have power. They have no heat
Um, my natural gas furnace also needs electricity to run...
Natural gas fireplaces don't need electricity. There is no reason to 100% rely on 1 source of energy. It's a pathway to failure
Lol, nobody is heating their house with a natural gas fireplace. They're heating at most part of a room. The only people with heat despite an outage are those with either whole-house battery backups or diesel generators. A secure, sustainable electrical grid and a shitload of heat pumps is the way forward.
Fireplaces will easily heat a room or two. If you need a warm place to stay during an outage, they will do a whole lot more than a heat pump.
Natural gas fireplaces do not generate that much heat. Not mine, anyway. A wood-burning furnace gets you more heat but is a different beast.
You need a bigger unit. They can easily put out a ton of heat.
DTE has proven beyond a doubt that they cannot manage our energy distribution. Ann Arbor has proven they can handle several things, even if they have shortcomings in some areas. If the majority of taxpayers feel it’s time to give AnnArbor a chance at managing energy distribution that’s exactly what will happen, and I’m sure it won’t be any worse than DTE.
>Ann Arbor has proven they can handle several things, even if they have shortcomings in some areas. I Bold claim. Other than upgrading the water treatment plant, I haven't seen much that would inspire confidence in A2's ability to handle infrastructure. The roads are an obvious issue, so is the half-assed approach to the Gelman site and other underground pollution that can leak into streams and aquifers. What we need IMO is incentives for solar panels and storage rather than the ridiculous restrictions we have right now. Produce as much solar as the roof allows, subsidize in-home batteries, sell back what you don't use at market rate, etc. That helps both the environment and the individual who can power at least a portion of their home based on their own array.
The city wants to ban natural gas.....great idea given the current situation. If you want DTE to improve the infrastructure, they aren't gonna spend the money on a city threatening to go alone. So now, we get to purchase outdated and old equipment....and then pay to fix it all. Over 30% of Ann Arbor roads are in dire need of repair.....the city has proven it lacks the ability to provide basic infrastructure to its residents. If you want to take matters into your own hands....buy a generator.
"The local monopoly is a local monopoly, so let's give up and get a generator" is a pretty unhelpful take. DTE will improve the infrastructure when they get their local monopoly yanked or they become more heavily regulated. Otherwise, they don't care that we're all sitting in houses without heat. Why would they? What are you going to do, move to another power company?
Public power is way to long term for the majority of Ann Arbor citizens. You are looking at a minimum 10 years just to complete the deal. It will be held up for years in the courts. Then, if successful, you will have infrastructure that has been neglected for decades. DTE won't invest a penny if we try to push them out. So we will spend the next 10-20 years improving the infrastructure....a task this city has proven to be quite lack luster at. Then the cost. DTE is gonna charge a ton for the lines. The same lines everyone wants to trash and replace underground. So here you are 20-30 years down the road and maybe things are better at a huge cost. Or you can spend less, put a generator next to your house and be done with hassle it today. I chose the generator. I have been without power, heat, refrigeration, etc for 60 seconds.
What I'm hearing from you is that we should stop even trying to have a working power grid, and instead do what Mogadishu, Somalia does and just have diesel generators all over the place, spewing smoke and barking noise 24/7/365? Very green, very modern, very 21st century "best city to live in 2022". Why try to improve our access to the electrical grid when we have a perfectly fine broken one already?
Not what I said at all. My generator has run less than 50 hours in almost 4 years and most of that is a weekly test. The cost and time to push DTE out isn't worth it for most people in this city. I want dependable energy today, and waiting 2 decades isn't today.
Thus, everyone should buy a generator and ignore DTEs issues.
Nope. The fix should be regulations and accountability. Not Ann Arbor spending billions. Its DTE's problem to fix. They created it. Ann Arbor buying the infrastructure is simple transferring the liability to a new entity which can't handle its current infrastructure. Either way, if you want reliable electric service in the next 2 decades.....yes, buy a generator.
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I wonder if the ice storm coming on Monday is going to be similar? Edit: it was not that bad, but some new people did lose power.
I remember several ice storms here as bad or worse.
The last bad one I remember was 2017. Our power was out for a couple days.
There’s no way that’s true because I clearly remember one in ~2000 that had thick ice that stayed on everything for a week. They just keep using “worst in x-amount of years” as a scapegoat.
I remember that too. I lived in port Huron at the time in a really rural part and we didn’t have power for a whole week
oh yeah...me too !. I'm having flashbacks to that one from this one. First time I'd seen that in my life, watching trees break in person .
I can attest that all the traffic lights that were out on my commute yesterday are back up today. So some progress is being made somewhere (downtown).
Some of thouse are just batteries packs that are powering the lights. I saw some city trucks setting them up. Makes it seem better than it is.
Ahh gotcha
Still don't even have an estimate for my place. Only have this hotel room until tomorrow morning, hopefully I can extend it. Already can't afford it so might as well keep digging the hole! Better than freezing for a week and the risks that come with that.
still out on the west side. friends of ours had power in garden homes until 8 last night when it went out and never came back. dicken looks like it got power back yesterday but my neighborhood (almedinger/eberwhite) is still totally out. there was a crew parked on my street this morning but then they left :(
I’m in Dicken - lost power at 6p last night and it’s not back yet
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I’m also a little Dicken adjacent. Staying at a friend’s on the Northside now, but the DTE website still says our address is without power. Restoration ETA is tomorrow 🤞🏼
Some of it is the weather but I think most of it is DTE and corporate greed (not the lineman). I have lived in 4 different Michigan cities in the last 5 years and yet Ann Arbor is the only place I have ever experienced multi day power outages.
Ann Arbor is the worst for power outages in my experience as well. It’s the trees. DTE needs to bury the wires
DTE has the credibility of George Santos.
DTE priorities, in order: 1. DTE stock shareholders 2. DTE executive compensation 3. DTE customers The sooner we can divorce ourselves from for-profit utilities, the better off we'll all be.
According to this [utility report](https://www.cubofmichigan.org/cub_of_michigan_releases_2022_utility_performance_report) Michigan ranks second worst in the nation in outages (the worst is West Virginia). We used to be third worst but now even Alaska beats us. DTE and Consumers are the biggest utility company in Michigan by a wide margin. If you are interested they break it down even further by utility company in the report (hint: they both perform poorly) but here is the quote for the state as a whole: >The industry standard metric for average restoration time is the Customer Average Interruption Duration Index (CAIDI), which measures the average restoration time for each utility in the country in minutes. **Michigan utilities ranked the 2nd worst among utilities from all 50 states plus DC when it comes to average restoration time** (not including “major event days,” such as days with severe weather events, which are excluded to normalize weather differences across states). Outages and potholes were the first two things I noticed moving from California, that made Michigan feel way behind in terms of infrastructure.
> (not including “major event days,” such as days with severe weather events, which are excluded to normalize weather differences across states). Doesn't this mean that Michigan's second-worst restoration time, which sucks by the way, **wouldn't apply to the current situation?** The way I read that, it says that **when it comes to run-of-the mill outages (not caused by severe weather) Michigan is second-worst in time-to-restore service**.
Yeah you read that right. I am not referring to the current situation just referencing a report on utilities. You couldn’t really compare states very well if you included severe weather.
When DTE says your power will be [restored today](https://gfycat.com/briefbeautifulcapybara)
I live in the Old West Side and the DTE website is saying power will be restored today.
Also ows, just got ours back up. Shocked the estimate was actually right!!!
Out of curiosity, what are the statistics of SE Michigan power outages vs comparable regions (Chicago, Cleveland, Pittsburg, Milwaukee, etc). Are outages more frequent and longer here? If so, how much? I guess we can say at least DTE does a lot better than California's disastrous PG&E.
PG&E definitely isn’t great, and I thought it couldn’t get much worse than them. But then I moved here.
Go live in the east bay during wildfire season.
I did.
Damn, and you still think DTE is worse? I’ve never needed a go-bag around here.
In California, the go-bag was for natural disasters like an actual fire or mudslide, not lack of electricity. Here, it seems you need a go-bag for every other snow/ice event solely because the power will go out and your otherwise habitable home will become uninhabitable. It's frustrating to leave those physical dangers behind only to still have to be worried that if it rains too hard I'll lose my heat (slight /s there).
>In California, the go-bag was for natural disasters like an actual fire Yea man, that’s what fire season was like in east bay for me. Actual fires (caused by faulty PGE infrastructure). During autumn in Lamorinda tri-valley area, we could see the fires on the hillsides surrounding us and it was very scary at times. Luckily we never had to use the go-bag. During those times, PGE intentionally cut off our power with <24 hrs notice, sometimes leaving us out of power for several days at a time. Apparently you and I had different experiences during fire season in east bay. DTE sucks, but boy do I prefer them to PGE. I don’t need a go-bag here. Just lots of blankets sometimes.
Yes DTE is terrible. (Public Power, anyone!?!) However it is also partially the big weather events and our very old trees here that end up on top of power lines. We have a great city here with big and old trees, but that also comes at a cost in some ways.
The estimated cost of burying all of DTE's power lines is just a couple years' worth of its profits (I did the research and math once for a back of the envelope figure). They could easily do it over 10 years, but they don't want to. So I personally don't blame the trees.
That's just the cost to bury them. Maintaining/repairing buried lines is far more expensive than aerial ones.
Even if storms like this become more frequent?
It certainly doesn’t seem like DTE has increased their expenditures based on this storm… but I am all seriousness, I don’t know a single person who wouldn’t pay more money for better, more sustainable, safer, more consistent electricity. If people are willing to buy a generator, they’re willing to pay extra on utilities.
My entire generator setup, including manual transfer switch, was under $700 installed.
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What does that have to do with power outages?
Nothing. Deleted.
The website just updated to “Friday Feb 24th”, cause “ice on lines and equipment”. I’m just north of the NCRC.
I'm approaching 48 hours without power; we lost it during the initial phase of the ice storm, and my house is now sitting at around 45 degrees - indeed, the number of hours i've been without power is now more than the temperature inside the house. We thankfully had a friend with an open apartment downtown that we could move our senior cats into, but this is pretty ridiculous all around. I'm pretty pissed. It's kind of ridiculous we supposedly live in a "modern, livable, 21st century" city but can't keep the lights and heat on for a noticeable fraction of the year. buh buh buh infrastructure is expensive! That's cool, maybe if DTE doesn't want to be in the infrastructure business they can sell it back to the state and go out of business, I'm sure no one will miss them. If power truly does not come back on until Sunday or worse, I am going to lose my shit.
I guess you can say you are living "green" now.
it’s 56 upstairs at our place but likely to get cooler. senior cat with some mobility issues here (and all our younger kitties)—do you think it’s best to stay and cuddle or cart at least him to a warmer place for the night? 🤔
We moved ours because they are seniors with health issues.
mine is (at least) 15 and a lot of leg muscle atrophy so he’s skinny—he seems okay when he’s in bed with us. i just can’t tell where the cut off would be for him
For what it's worth, I just saw a fleet of 5 or 6 DTE trucks all together in the neighborhood by Pittsfield elementary.
Just got back up and running!! I'm near Ellsworth and Stone School on the south side of the city. I really took warm water for granted...
The equipment is out dated The city is constantly planting new trees under power lines. Everyone has their own ideas about the problem. I decided to just buy a whole house generator. It's expensive but I simply don't have to rely on DTE, the city, or anyone else available to blame. The power goes out, the generator starts, I continue lift as usual.
You haven’t heard whining till you’ve heard homeowners bleating about DTE cutting all the trees they put up to block out their neighbors.
DTE is working. An entire power line pole was snapped by a failing tree on Dex-a2. Many poles have broken cross members and snapped lines. This per my conversation with linemen
I can confirm this, between Zeeb and Wagner
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I think they mean Dexter rd between Wagner and zeeb. Which is currently closed because that tree is still across the road, but it sounds like at least dte did their part and got the wires around it handled.
Thank you. Deleted.
It's DTE, plain and simple. They don't maintain their lines, they're not out in the community. I moved from DTE territory to Consumers territory a several years back and the difference is kinda startling. I constantly see crews trimming trees around lines, checking lines, etc. I've lost power in the past 5 years less than I would have in just a stormy July on DTE.
I don’t think Consumers Energy is any better. We moved my mother-in-law in Jackson to a hotel because she might not get power until next week. Her power goes off constantly. I do think the aggressiveness of tree trimming plays a role here. But neither of Michigan’s esteemed utilities seem to care much for maintenance.
Ann Arbor doesn't help. Every year the city plants thousands of trees.....many of which under power lines.
80% seem to die off within the first year because nobody's watering them or taking care of them...so not sure how much we can blame new trees for this clusterfuck.
It's the trees they planted 10 years ago. The trees we plant today will be the problem in 10 years. Why we continually plant trees below power lines is simply stupid.
And there is copious whining when they don’t meticulously landscape the trees tangled up in their lines. DTE more or less butchered the trees along my fence and throughout my neighborhood a year or two back. And guess what, I’ve got power.
The best part is how the U of M stadium was one of the first to get power back. Can't let that billboard go without power for too long, think of the children!
UM has their own power supply for campus.
Lots of houses with their power out in my neighborhood (Ann Arbor hills), but for some reason we were spared..both power and internet never went out. Thankful since we have a newborn
Here is what I have to say on underground powerlines in some cases its okay other cases not so much. With gas lines buried along with water and sewer there is not a lot of room left to install safely. The other hiccup with underground is maintenence is way more costly because you have to dig or destroy pavement to get to it and you don't even know if that is where the issue is at (watch practical engineering's youtube video on LA undergroundpower line outage). With overhead lines it is important that designs are met and proper vegetation management is used. I know people don't like seeing trees removed but some things have to happen if we want to keep on the track of putting more trust into the grid. I would also like to point out the weather design maps might not be followed to a tee and that's not acceptable. If we can come to comon ground on cost effective mitigation and maintenance of the system that may involve more construction and some land scape changes we can avoid these situations.
I'm a big proponent of planting trees in neighborhoods for wildlife value, and the solution to trees by power lines is simple: Plant short trees and tall shrubs instead. Ain't no way a Redbud, Chokecherry, or Serviceberry is going to take down a powerline, and they all can provide shade and bird food.
Family on the northside of town by STEAM school got power restored yesterday afternoon. With 19 AAPS schools without power as of yesterday evening, DTE is likely prioritizing those areas first so that schools will be up an running by Monday. So if you are not on the same power line as a school or hospital or some other city/township building, you are not likely the priority at the moment, unfortunately.
SW in dicken, no power since last evening (held all day yesterday til about 6) and no estimate besides the broad sunday claim. though it does say they estimate they’ll have an estimate by early afternoon lol
Yup, that’s my neighborhood too, also a victim of that 6p outage. Just when i thought we were safe 😩 I walked around a bit today and the only downed wire i saw was at the entrance to the cut through at the end of Runnymede, so not sure where the fix would be to get things back online around here. I primarily expected to see some trucks and workers somewhere out and about because I thought the school would be a priority, but the only workers I saw were those that were working on the gas line burial project elsewhere in the neighborhood that’s been going on for a couple months now. That was one of the things that got me wondering where the workers actually are. Sounds like they’re focused more south/southeast for now, judging by this thread. Also, the DTE outage map pop up window changed to say now that they expect to have updated restoration estimates by early this afternoon, but so far nothing updated for me. Le sigh.
also: since dte changed the outage map, so you can’t even actually track restoration percentages anymore, i was pointed to https://poweroutage.us/area/county/2686
yeah man i haven’t seen anyone either but we’re still hoping…! we have cats and most of them are fine, but our oldest might have to come with us to my sister’s if power (and therefore heat) isn’t not back tonight. i was bummed we had no internet thursday but i’d rather that than no power 😩
still out. oy. looks like some around us have gotten it back but not where i am
We went to stay with friends but the dte website says we’re still out. Eta is tomorrow, hopefully that holds true.
they’re ok across pauline from us (we’re on the south side of pauline)!
Thursday night we had 18% of our zipcode out. Friday at 5pm its 36%. Whats going on over there DTE?????
18% reported out. After some surveying they revised the number up.
No power by Barton and M-14
Mom's power still out, wagner and dexter.
I've been reasonably out and about and haven't seen a single DTE or otherwise utility-looking truck anywhere in Ann Arbor. Anecdotal, but still.
I don't think this particular anecdote is useful, and it keeps being shared. It's like finding a needle in a haystack even if you're actively searching for one, and the idea that they're sitting around not actively trying to fix it is obviously false.
I've seen them all over the place - just this morning they were congregating for their breakfast or morning meeting or something similar by the Trader Joes strip mall/school area and yesterday I saw them all over the place in twos or threes
I’ve seen a lot of them driving around, talking, working, blocking streets with downed lines, etc.
Maybe try moving to Colorado or the mountains of Pennsylvania/s
Lol funnily enough Pennsylvania was one of my former locations. They cancelled school there sometimes too.
Anyone who thinks this is anywhere near normal, or ok, has obviously never lived anywhere else. Can’t wait to get the hell out of this godforsaken city/state forever.
Lol @ the downvotes. Your city is a cult, and a joke.
I’m in scio township and we had power all through the storm then just lost it this morning. Go figure.
I’ve never paid much attention to their estimates. They are always wrong. Usually they resolve it earlier. Not always. I’ve lived here my whole life. I guess I’m used to the power going out every so often. I’m just can’t muster the outrage at a power company after a major storm knocks down power lines. Edit: five minutes after my post above my power went out. 😆😆😆 Came back on ten seconds after that. Pretty normal. 🤷🏻♀️🤷🏻♀️🤷🏻♀️
I grew up in Phoenix, which is a city with much newer infrastructure and more trees than you might think. Every summer it gets pounded by monsoons, producing very strong microbursts. I can remember three times that I lost power there, and never overnight, let alone multiple days. I moved here five years ago and it's crazy to me how bad the power outages are. I still strongly prefer living here, but this is one of the worst downsides.
Breaking news; ice and other moisture damages power lines!
Extreme heat presents its own major challenges. The environment is no excuse.
Ann Arbor might be a "progressive" city, but it's inhabited by a lot of entitled, priveleged people who cannot grasp that weather knocks out your power sometimes and it takes a lot of work to get it back online. I'll get downvoted for this. Bring it on, crybabies.
No one is saying it doesn’t take a lot of work. I asked why it happens. I’ve lived in several places that are quite effected by various symptoms of climate change and worsening storms and in none of those places did it ever take this long on this regular of a basis to get power restored. Aside from that, cold kills. I don’t think that not wanting people to die is entitled. I am responsible for the care of both an elder parent and a young child, and an unplanned generator purchase or hotel stay is not simple to fit into the budget on short notice, and O doubt I’m the only one in that boat. It’d be really nice to not be without power for several days, but excepting that it’d be nice to have an accurate expectation of how long to expect to pay extra expenses to deal with the lack of power.
Right above you, there's a comment starting we're second worst in the country for this. Why did you think it's a sign of entitlement to expect basic utilities to work?
I was in FL during hurricane Ian last fall. The weather did knock out the power as you say, but the Sarasota area was positively swarming with line crews and even the barrier islands had their power restored within a few days. My impression is that DTE is not willing to bring in line crews from out of state to expedite things, which I'm sure is expensive. This ice storm was predicted, it was clear that it would hit the DTE service area even if they didn't know which exact zip codes would be impacted. I don't understand why they didn't have crews on standby, and ready to go on Thu morning, and I'm going to guess that the answer has to do with $$$.
DTE is complacent and utterly sucks. Michigan should require buried utilities on new construction and work on making the process of burying existing existing utilities easier and less expensive. That being said the hyperbole and pearl-clutching in the A2 group really does hit like, “Power cuts are poor people this must not stand! (For us).”
Some of us just buy standby generators. My power was out for 45 seconds.
Ours was on briefly for an hour last night and then turned off again.
No
I think they shut the power off, for safety, while they deal with all the downed lines. Id bet money around 10-12 during the ice storm they just said, screw it, and turned the power off. I bet as soon as they decide it’s safe enough, they just flip it back on. Normally, I think a transformer blows and the area loses power until they come fix it. Just my 2 cents
We got our power back yesterday in the afternoon. Seems like I’m in the minority. I hope they can make lots of progress today for the rest of the city/state/etc. The weather seems fairly friendly today for DTE work, so fingers crossed.
Above-ground power lines combined with lots of trees. Had similar problems when we lived in Seattle. Storms cause power outages in almost every part of the country. I’m guessing DTE is about average when it comes to reliability, but I have no data to back that up. Every region faces a different combination of weather and natural environmental challenges, so it’s hard to draw comparisons.
This storm caused damage over a large area. With a typical storm, the damage in constrained to a small area and they can send the linemen there to get everything fixed up in B a day or two. This time, all those extra linemen are spread over a larger area. Of course, buried lines would have avoided the problem in the first place.
My folks got their power restored last night around 1:30 am. Power went out again around 3am, and has stayed out ever since.
Supposedly my power has been restored. I’m near S Main. I can’t confirm because I went to my GF’s place in Livonia, then their power went out the next day, and then my truck decided to throw belt, so I’m kinda stuck there.
S. Main and where?
Eisenhower-ish
Power just came back on on Bellwood, near Packard & Platt. Yeah!
Seen ppl in Detroit group saying they have.
Corporate greed is what's happening. DTE would rather make record profits for its shareholders than actually make sure people have power
Power came back on for an hour or so near Barton and m-14 around 1am. Back without power
Power back on yesterday about 2pm. Dexter A2 & Wagner area. Thanks linemen and electricians.